APSRTC bus fares hiked by 10 per cent

Vijayawada: The APSRTC management has finally decided to hike bus fares by 10 per cent across the fleet effective from mid night on Friday. The government accepted the proposals of RTC and gave the nod to hike the fares at 10 per cent on super lu-xury, express and deluxe services and 3 percent on Telugu Velugu services.

The fare hike will come into effect from Friday midnight and with this move RTC will augment its revenue by Rs 330 crore per annum.

During a press conference here at RTC house on Friday, RTC managing director N. Samabasiva Rao said the hike is inevitable as the corporation is suffering losses of Rs 595 crore and added burdened by '660 crore with wage revision of 43 per cent fitment to the workers.

He further said the revised bus fares will not be a burden to rural commuters, who mostly travel in Telugu Velugu buses, as the hike is amounting to an increase of 3 paisa per km.

“Our Chief Minister finally accepted to increase bus fares at 10 per cent on high level services and 3 per cent on Telugu Velugu services,” said Mr Rao.